Pick Your Own Fruit Farms Thieves On The Rise in Shrewsbury

Transcript

00:00So I'm Joe Hamer, also known as Farmer Joe, and this is Ask It Farmer, my piccoo and strawberry patch.

00:06We understand how piccoo works and how as kids you all went and you had a sample and you had the old joke

00:13we'll weigh you in and we'll weigh you out again, and we appreciate that and we know that's how it works.

00:19But yeah, it's when people really do

00:24eat more than they put in their punnet, that's when it starts to affect our daily business.

00:29We've only been doing it for two years

00:31and I

00:33don't know whether it's because we're busier this year, or I'm not sure, but I certainly feel that we're seeing more

00:42dishonest

00:45dishonesty than perhaps we did do last year. So we have a linear mile, so we have a mile of cables and

00:53there is

00:55so it's about

00:571,600 meters and

01:01we have eight plants to the meter.

01:04Each plant will produce about half a kilo.

01:07I'd like to think as far as cost of living goes, we offer a very very reasonable day out for the family.

01:12I mean a family can come for a day out here.

01:16It's free to enter. It's free entry.

01:19You literally pick what you want and your kids can play for hours out here in the picnic area

01:24and it costs you nothing more than you might buy them an ice cream.

01:28Quite easily have a day out here for

01:31less than 30 quid for a family.

01:34I've got friends in the industry and they're saying the same thing that they're

01:38people who have a lot more experience than me and have got a lot more idea of what they can expect from year to year from

01:45their

01:46similar tunnels to us and they're saying that they're seeing their tunnels dry up a fruit

01:52quicker than they should do which only points to people

01:57sampling, excessive sampling.